Perceptive Media presentation slides

Its been less than 14 days since we launched our Perceptive Media prototype to the world and the feedback has been coming back thick and fast. As usual please keep it going and do pass it on to others who may have not heard it yet, even if they have no interest in the technology. Were as much interested in the general public view as technologists.
One of the unnoticed pieces which went up during the launch was our smc presentation for perceptive media.
Like most presentations I do, its low on text and you end up listening to what I say rather than reading the slides. This is great but not so good when you’ve not heard me (and Tony) talking.
So here’s a rough idea of what we talk about over the presentation…
  1. This presentation is for the concept of perceptive media
  2. You may not know but the BBC has a R&D department and they have been with the BBC right from the start. Actually a engineer was hired within the first 10 people to join the BBC. We do a whole load of research and development on questions the BBC faces in the near to long term future. We also feed into standard bodies such as W3C
  3. We use broadcast technology and broadcast to everyone in the UK. We do this because its in our remit and we must reach everyone who pays the license fee. It also provides the best value for the license fee
  4. Unfortunately Broadcast is one way communication and it can feel like your banging your head on a brick wall trying to reply or communicate back.
  5. The best stories are enchanting and engaging but how does this tally up with broadcast communication?
  6. I’ll like to take you back to the original story telling medium, before broadcast changed things… something like sitting around a campfire telling a ghost story. When telling that story, you would look at peoples faces and subconsciously change elements of the story.
  7. What happened? Broadcast happened, and the ability to tell many more people the same story became the default
  8. But in the move to broadcast (that one way medium) we forgot about context, body language, etc. These implicit actions and triggers which once would help form the narrative are no longer included.
  9. Take the comedy conundrum, every comedian has to face
  10. They choose to customise there sets with jokes and references to the local area
  11. Note the word customise rather than personise. The comedian is still in control and fit it in when he or she feels it approbate. They will also work against the typical view of the location if it works with material in there mind
  12. Variables are things which can change depending on other things in this case. But they each have rules, like maximum length. This is the same for narrative but the human mind can do the calculation so quickly on the fly
  13. Currently the state of the art in perceptive like media is centres around internet virals like Take this Lollipop. But we feel there unsubtle and frankly bit simple with the two way pipe of the internet. Now if you could do this on a one way pipe, wouldn’t that be interesting
  14. It needs to scale in a way which rivals Broadcast otherwise no one will take it seriously
  15. We this is possible with the incredible power the client side now has compared to previously.
  16. The power has been shifting to the user for many years with on-demand and other technologies
  17. We created with a bunch of other peoples help a prototype called “Breaking Out” to prove it can be done
  18. As you can see its not interactive, there is no feedback loops or anything like that. Its a customised experience
  19. Because there is clear difference between explicit and implicit feedback. We feel storytellers would love to work off the implicit feedback rather than the explicit stuff. Thats the stuff which drives your ghost story
  20. How? Well there is a ton of work and money going into adding sensors to your living room. From 3D cameras which see all to simple light sensors to adjust the picture brightness. We’re just talking about using that same data generated to customise a narrative
  21. Of course this all fits with the trend around big data sets, something the BBC has a lot experience in with BBC Backstage
  22. Back to the audience and narrative. Broadcasters have been losing the connection with the audiences. Lots of people have the TV on like the Radio. Its just on and if something picks up their ears, they will tune in or listen.
  23. There is a concept called the attention economy which you may know about and it gets talked about a lot. One of my favor quotes related to the concept is from John Doe on the film Se7en. Most of the examples fit in the sledgehammer category while…
  24. We feel we can achieve the same effect with little tickles here and there.
  25. Were talking about highly relevant customisation of narrative
  26. Which fit and run on the narrative rails setup by the author/storyteller
  27. When I watched Vanilla Sky first time, there was a scene which stuck a cord with me. I couldn’t work out what it was till the end when it was revealed they had re-imagined points of Tom Cruises memories (I won’t spoil it further)
  28. We feel we can strike a cord and reestablish that connection with our audiences which has been so badly missing
  29. Thank you!

Its of course, a lot better when we present it together and add all the additional stuff you won’t get in the notes. Plus it usually throws up a million questions which we have answers for…

This is not a Dark Knight Rises review

The Dark Knight Rises at 5am BST

There will be *no spoilers* in this micro-review for the dark knight rises. In actual fact this is more about my experience of waking up at 3am to head to the Odeon IMAX at 4am

Yes I did the whole 5am thing and actually really enjoyed it, somewhat more than the Tron Legacy 12:01am opening thing which had me wishing I had gone to bed instead (plus I wasn’t impressed with the film besides the 3D). However I got up at 3:05am, jumped in the shower and had breakfast. I didn’t leave the flat till 3:50am which had me rushing along the very wet but pretty quiet streets.

I decided if I saw a cab I would jump into it because it was really coming down (as it does too often in Manchester). Of course I didn’t see any cabs with there yellow lights on and I just kept walking. By the time I got through the Northern Quarter it was pointless getting a cab and I walked into the Printworks complex from the east side to find a massive queue of people waiting to get into the actual Odeon. This took me back because I was planning to be there about 4am but I had arrived about 4:15am. So much for getting a decent seat I thought. But then the line started the move as the doors opened and people walked in single file. Almost everyone ran towards the ticket pickup machines and box office while a few of us went straight up to the 1st floor to the IMAX.

I was expecting another queue but it was straight into the IMAX and I must have been about 50/60th in to the cinema meaning I could get the row just in front of the Premiere seating (row G). Generally I find row G, H and I are the sweet spots for most cinemas. Of course I didn’t get the centre but I got left of it then the couple I sat next to moved because they were actually booked in the premiere seats. Meaning I could move closer to the middle.

The Odeon staff were pretty good about the whole thing with loud atmospheric music from previous Nolan films playing. The Inception sound track got a massive smile from me. However when it came to the moment we waited for, there was a delay while they had to restart the IMAX projector. Not elegant but after 3mins we were away.

The dark knight rises takes place in a time after the dark knight when the cops of the city are pretty much use to keeping the peace and not much else. Of course the dark knight comes back however against Bane played by Tom Hardy he’s pretty much out of sorts. Bane’s presence on screen is amazing and you can really feel the bass in his breathing and speech. Other characters are also great including Catwoman… I read a review somewhere else saying it was an emotional end to a great series and there not wrong. The heart strings are pulled but not in a gimmicky way. Confidence, Self believe and wellbeing, all come into play. This will touch some and will float over the head of many others (so expect lots of disappointed people)

 

However before I start talking about the plot and spoil it for you all. I would like to say this film is the defining reason to watch it in the IMAX.

Containing over an hour of IMAX footage, the movie leaps up on the giant screen, absorbing and lush and practically enveloping the audience in its 70 mm celluloid. The most notable use of IMAX from The Dark Knight, the swooping overhead city shot at the beginning of the film, is repeated over and over again in The Dark Knight Rises, but it never loses its impact. We constantly see Gotham from above, and it fills the entire screen and our entire field of vision; just as Batman is committed fully to this city, we cannot escape it.

I swear my jaw was locked in place and chin on the floor for most of the later parts of the film. It was stunning and absorbing. The level of immersion was breathtaking. I’m so glad I got a chance to watch it in the IMAX first and I’m lucky enough to live close to a real IMAX. Unlike previous films by Nolan and others, its been clear when its the IMAX camera and not. Don’t get me wrong it was still clear but the difference this time is there was plenty of footage, enough to make it blur together.

For me the Dark Knight Rises was a masterpiece. I won’t be watching it as many times as Inception but Nolan once again has done himself and his audience proud with something which people thought couldn’t be reborn. He for me and others is the greatest director ever now. What ever he touches turns to gold… Dark Knight Rises was simply EPIC!

The dark knight rises should beat the avengers and set the world record for the biggest grossing weekend in current film history, specially with its 12 cert. But please spare a thought for those killed and injured in Colorado the same time I was glued to my seat watching the dark knight rises…

The History of File-Sharing

Anonymous DDC_1660_1

The Darknet is something I deep into for research purposes and to get an idea of whats emerging… However I keep having to defend the innovation, expertise and pure genius of the darknet. I use darknet in lei of a better word to describe the underground world of hackers. Crazy because theres so many examples out there.

Torrentfreak recently did a history of file-sharing which has plenty of examples of hackers and developers scratching there own itches.

BitTorrent has catapulted into a mainstream filesharing mechanism which is fast, efficient, and difficult to stop. Early versions of BitTorrent required centralized trackers to operate, but have later become able to utilize trackerless “torrents.” Increasingly BitTorrent users have grown concerned with their privacy. Indexes such as YouHaveDownloaded.com have been able to maintain logs of every file downloaded by IP, which has raised significant awareness to whether it is safe to download files through BitTorrent. In addition, many ISPs have been known to cap speeds when detecting BitTorrent downloads. As a result of these privacy concerns millions of BitTorrent users have signed up with Anonymous VPN services to mask their IP-addresses when downloading…