AFP: Sharp unveils 3D displays that require no glasses

Sharp unveils 3D displays that require no glasses

(AFP) – Apr 2, 2010

TOKYO — Japanese electronics giant Sharp unveiled Friday a liquid crystal display (LCD) touchscreen that shows 3D images without requiring special glasses, as the race to market such products intensifies.

Although Sharp has not given specific plans, there is speculation that it will equip video game giant Nintendo's upcoming DS console due out next spring, which will feature games in 3D. Both companies have commercial ties.

A user can see three-dimensional images at a distance of 30 centimetres (12 inches) from the Sharp screen without having to wear special glasses that are currently required when watching 3D movies.

Sharp's 3D screen overcomes the need for special glasses by using parallax to display different images to each eye to give the illusion of three dimensions while retaining image clarity.

Sharp has been working on 3D product development since 2002 but earlier efforts suffered from poor picture resolution and brightness, explained Sharp's LCD business manager Yoshisuke Hasegawa.

Since then Sharp said it has improved image quality to the extent where it is ready to launch a series of new 3D screens, and plans to start production in Japan by September.

While touchscreens will not be part of the initial phase of production, potential applications include mobile phones, digital cameras, digital photo frames and games consoles, the company said.

"We have customers in various sectors that have shown interest," said Hasegawa, who declined to give names but said interested parties included phone makers.

Sharp, which tops Japan's cellphone market, eventually plans to offer portable phones, computers and other electronics products equipped with the 3D screens.

Hasegawa declined to say whether Sharp would supply displays for Nintendo's new 3D device, tentatively called the Nintendo 3DS.

The Japanese console giant announced a plan last week to release the device by the end of March 2011.

Sharp predicts that next-generation cellphones will all be equipped with 3D screens, but said their success would be dependent on the ability to function without the need for special glasses.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

here we go!

Taking risks and dancing with audiences: Andrea Phillips on writing for transmedia and ARGs | jeff watson

I met Andrea Phillips at this year’s SXSW, where she delivered a smart, wide-ranging talk about the representation of women in ARGs. Andrea is a veteran ARG writer, designer, and player, and is the current chair of the IGDA ARG Special Interest Group. In this interview, Andrea discusses her creative process and the formal and technical limitations (and possibilities) of ARGs and other playful forms of transmedia storytelling:

You’re a self-identified science fiction writer working in a very hard-to-pin-down storytelling medium. How did you end up writing and designing ARGs?

I was one of the moderators for the Cloudmakers, back in 2001. As a writer, it was like a lightning bolt falling from heaven. I went through the experience and thought, “That. I want to do THAT.” It took a few years to go anywhere, though. Finally my fellow moderators, Dan and Adrian Hon, started talking about forming the company that would later become Mind Candy. I begged them to let me help out so relentlessly that they had no choice but hire me. I’ve been in the business ever since.

One of the things that is quickly becoming an issue with game and transmedia writing is the sometimes tenuous position of the writer in the apparatus of production. How do you think being an ARG writer differs from being, say, a TV writer or a novelist?

At its best, writing for an ARG is a performing art. When you write a novel, you work in isolation; you won’t get feedback from the bulk of your readers until it’s completed. And with a TV show, production schedules mean the writing is completed sometimes months before a show airs.

With an ARG, though, you can dance with your audience. If they take a shine to a minor character, you can boost that character’s role midstream. If they’re bored with a plot thread, you can catch it early and fix it. And that kind of feedback is addictive to a writer. It can be difficult to get that kind of feedback in other media at all. But in an ARG, you’re doing something close to watching their faces as they read along, so you know when you’re succeeding and when you’re failing.

In the larger realm of production and transmedia, though, I think this causes some logistical problems. A great transmedia experience requires an agility that traditional means of production just don’t have, and the writer can be placed in a difficult position, trying to maintain the integrity of the experience while working within the framework of your production schedule.

In a recent post on this issue on your blog, you wrote that sometimes “there are so many writers working on a project that it’s hard to know whose hand [is] guiding the wheel. But these are solveable problems, and solving them would benefit us all.” What kinds of first steps do you think need to be taken to advance the cause?

The first step would be looking at the kinds of roles game writers and transmedia writers fall into right now, to see if we can find common structures. In games, there’s a lot of support for the title ‘narrative designer’ right now. That’s the person who comes up with the spine of the story, whether or not they ever write a word of player-facing copy. Maybe we need to go in that direction, and separate the narrative designer from the world designer.

And given the performative element of an ARG, maybe we need to be crediting writers alongside actors. ‘The character of Alice Liddell was performed by Ada Lovelace, and written by Marshall Thurgood.’

Shifting gears a bit, I’m curious about how you tackle the complex demands of ARG writing and design. After meeting with a client, where do you begin? What comes first for you, the formal constraints (ie, the kinds of interactions you want to produce) or the story material?

Everything I do begins with a big idea. Sometimes that’s mine, and it springs into existence fully-formed — “What if everyone wrote about waking up with superpowers?” Sometimes it’s the assignment given to me by a client. “We have XYZ requirements and assets. What do you have for us?”

From there, I do a little research and a little bit of what looks from the outside like nothing at all. Going to the gym, walking to school, cooking. The important thing is that I leave my brain unoccupied so it’s free to come up with stuff, like particles popping into existence in a vacuum. As the idea simmers in the back of my head, everything about what the project should look like becomes obvious to me. It feels very much like discovering something that was already there.

Specific story elements come last for me. Tension and pacing and structure are the first things that come to mind, and the specific plot and story elements flow out of that. It’s the opposite of the way I did things a few years ago. I used to think of story and plot detail first! I’m not sure why it’s changed, but I’m helpless to do it any other way, now.

Historically, most ARGs have been event-driven time-released stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. One of the nice things about this narrative structure is that it allows writers to plan (and re-plan, as conditions on the ground shift) their stories in much the same way that they do in more traditional forms: that is, via character arcs, acts, orchestrated patterns of conflict, and so on. However, these kinds of ARGs are usually not replayable, and many people — for many reasons — feel that this is an area where the form could stand to experiment a little bit. What are your thoughts on this?

I agree that we need to experiment more. But the good news is that the experimenting is going on now.

Not to toot my own horn, but one of the things my project Routes did was creating a weekly webisode from the events in the ARG, so you could interact with the live experience while it played out, but there is also an artifact of the experience that gives the project a long tail it wouldn’t have otherwise. In the metaphor of the ARG as a live concert, that’s creating a recording you can listen to at any time. You won’t be able to do all of the same things — you won’t be able to throw your underwear up on stage or smell the guy in front of you — but you’ll get some sense of what it was like to have been there. I think this technique could definitely move into wider use.

And there are a number of entirely replayable experiences, too: Smokescreen, the Cathy’s Book series, etc. The downside of this is that you lose some wonder, some discovery, a ton of reactivity, and the camaraderie of a single community playing along together. It transforms into a different kind of experience.

So can a system for storytelling — that is, a set of story-world parameters and rules of engagement — be considered a kind of fiction? If so, how does this change our understanding of what a writer is?

Oh, it absolutely can. I’d consider My Super First Day to be a set of very loose story-world parameters that I’ve set, and I consider it a work of fiction. It doesn’t make me a writer, though; I only get to be a writer if I also participate. But I’m indisputably the creator.

You may also be familiar with Ghyll and The Song of the Sorcelator, both arguably just frameworks for writer-participants to play around with. This is one of the things I keep playing around with in my personal work, actually; where is the line between a creator and a participant, and how can you blur it in a way that will be rewarding to everybody?

As time goes on, I think the boundary will become ever more nebulous. We’re already seeing major entertainment franchises take a kinder, gentler stand on fanfiction and fanart. That’s the first step in building collaborative culture. The secret, of course, is that once you’ve given your audience official permission to collaborate with you in any meaningful sense, they’re yours forever, hook, line, and sinker.

Where do you see all this going in the next five years? And what’s next for you?

Five years is an incredibly long time. Five years ago, there was no such thing as Facebook or Twitter, and when you walked into a digital agency and said ‘interactive’ they thought you were talking about banner ads and SEO. I think in five years, the entire entertainment landscape is going to look so profoundly different that anything I have to say on it is worthless.

As for me, I have a couple of things cooking right now. I try to do enough professional projects to keep the rent paid, and enough personal projects that I feel I’m always pushing my own limits. But my personal projects are largely microscopic in scale and experimental to the point of self-indulgence. I’m thinking about trying to do a bigger, more ambitious experimental personal project toward the end of the year, and possibly funding through Kickstarter or some such thing. I’m not sure what it would look like, but I feel like it would be a shame not to try. The creative life is all about taking risks.

Thanks, Andrea!

UPDATE: get your own copy of “How to Win at Anything” (pictured above) here

Really great interview with Andrea Philips on writing & running ARGs and her own ideation process.

Ted Hope: 38 Ways the Film Industry Is Failing Today

A year ago I wrote a blog post " 38 American Independent Film Problems/Concerns." Unfortunately, all of those problems I listed a year ago still stand today; four or so from that list have made some real headway, perhaps, but they certainly remain issues. Of more concern is that the list keeps growing and growing. I can contribute another 38 even more pressing issues today.

In fact, there is no one to blame for this list but ourselves. It is our inability to be proactive that his brought on us this terrible state. What once were problems or concerns have grown more pressing. You do the math: we now have over 70 things wrong with our industry that we are not taking action to fix.

Ask yourself what you currently are concerned and frustrated about in terms of where both film culture and the film business are today. Where is our industry capable of being and how does it compare to where we actually are? Do we really have the capacity to sit and wait to get there? Isn't our silence delaying the trip?

I must admit that I am a bit disappointed that I had no difficulty adding another thirty-eight items to this list of where we are currently failing. The exciting thing about this (and why #38 of last year 's list was "lists like this make the foolish despair") is both these lists demonstrate a tremendous opportunity for those willing to break from the status quo and do things a bit differently. Things may be wrong, but they could always be worse. From here, we just have to work together to make it better. It is that simple. Every deficit is an opportunity for the creative entrepreneur, right?

So how has the film biz continued to reveal itself to be terribly troubled this year? What do I suggest we start to focus on, discuss, and find solutions for? This list is a start, and I wager we will expand it substantially in the days ahead.

  1. We can not logically justify any ticket price whatsoever for a non-event film. There are too many better options at too low a price. Simply getting out of the house or watching something somewhere because that is the only place it is currently available does not justify a ticket price. We still think of movies as things people will buy. We have to change our thinking about movies to something that enhances other experiences, and it is that which has monetary value. Films power as a community organizing tool extends far beyond it's power to sell popcorn (and the whole exhibition industry is based on that idea).
  2. The Industry has never made any attempt to build a sustainable investor class. Every other industry has such a go-to funding sector, developed around a focus on the investors' concerns and standardized structures. In the film biz, each deal is different and generally stands alone, as opposed to leading to something more. The history of Hollywood is partially defined by the belief that another sucker is born every minute. Who really benefits by the limited options for funding currently available other than those funders and those who fee those deals? We could build something that works far more efficiently and offers far more opportunity
  3. The film business remains the virtually exclusive domain of the privileged. Although great strides have been made to diversify the industry, the numbers don't lie. The film industry is ruled by the white male from middle class or better socioeconomic backgrounds. It is an expensive art form and a competitive field -- but it doesn't need to a closed door one. Let's face it, people hire folks who remind them of themselves. These days everyone needs to intern and the proposition of working for free is too expensive for most to be able to engage. Living in NYC or LA is not affordable to most people starting out. We get more of the same and little progress without greater diversity. And although I essentially mentioned this last year (#36), the continued poor economy limits diversity even more now.
  4. There is no structure or mechanism to increase liquidity of film investments, either through clear exit strategies, or secondary capital markets. The dirty secret of film investment is that it is a long recoupment cycle with little planning for an exit strategy. Without a way to get out, fewer people chose to get in. Who really wants to lock up an investment for four years? Not investors, only patrons...
  5. Independent Filmmakers (and their Industry advisors) build business plans based on models and notions selected from before September 15, 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed and everything changed. It is not the same business as it was then and we shouldn't treat it as the same. Expectations have changed considerably, probably completely. Buyers and audiences behaviors are different, those that still remain that is. Products are valued at different levels. We live in a new world. Our strategies must change with it.
  6. The film business remains a single product industry. The product may be available on many different platforms, but it is still the same thing. For such a capital intensive enterprise to sell only one thing is a squandering of time and money. Films can be a platform to launch many different products and enterprises, some of which can also enhance the experience and build the community.
  7. We have done very little thinking or discussing about how to make events out of our movies. The list seems to have stopped at 3D. There's only been one "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and the first one is very very old. Music flourishes because the live component is generally quite different from the recorded one, and the film biz could benefit from a greater difference of what utilizes different platforms.
  8. We ignore film's most unique attribute. As demonstrated by how little of people's online time is spent watching content (30%), people want connectivity & community, more than anything else. There used to be film societies, just like reviewers once placed films in cultural context -- we need to recreate a community aspect to filmgoing. If you wonder why people don't go to the movies more, it is not as much about the content, as it is about the lack of community. Without that, why not just stay home to watch? Film's strongest attribute is its ability to work as a community organizing tool. Film forces us to feel, to think, to engage -- let's not ignore that.
  9. Independent film financing is still based around an antiquated foreign sales model despite the fact that all acquisition markets are collapsing and fee levels shrink market to market. This old model is centered around stars' perceived value -- an attribute that has been less reliable than ever before. There has got to be a better way than the foreign sales estimate model, but no one talks about it, or even admits to needing one. The participants that get most hurt by this are the investors who take the advice of the "experts" that this is the way it's done. It used to be done this way, but we have to move on before we burn to the ground.
  10. Filmmakers don't own their audiences yet (and few even attempt to). What will happen when agents start to cut deals for their clients who have 1 million engaged fans, people who will pre-order their content, promote it passionately, and deliver more of their friends? There is a shift in the balance of power about to happen, and those that have prepared for it, amassed their followings, will be able to change the conversation significantly.
  11. We've failed to develop fetish objects to demonstrate one's love of cinema. The only merchandise we sell is "fanboy" toys. We need to come up with items that demonstrate their possessor's sense of style and taste. Beyond the books of Taishen what is there? We can do better. Such products manufacture desire and enhance identification with the art form. We need to streamline the process of the transformation of leisure time into both intellectual and social capital (i.e movie going and its byproducts).
  12. Creators, Distributors, and Marketeers have accepted a dividing line between art and commerce, between content and marketing. By not engaging the filmmakers in how to use marketing tools within their narrative and how to bring narrative techniques to the marketing, we diminish the discovery and promotional potential of each film. We limit the scope of our art by restricting it to the plane of the 90 minute product. Movies should find us early, lead us to new worlds, bridge us to subsequent experiences, connect us to new passions and loves, help us embrace a more expansive definition of cinema,life, and self.
  13. We don't recognize that one of film's greatest assets is it's ability to generate data. Filmmakers and financiers should be insisting on owning the data their film's generate for it is an incredibly valuable commodity. The VOD platform allows for tracking of where and when and who in terms of the business, yet this data is restricted to aggregator and not the creator. When you license something for a small fraction of it's costs, shouldn't you share in everything that is generated?
  14. We fail to utilize the two years from greenlight to release to market our film and build our audience. Despite have the key economic indicators (i.e. stars & concept) in place at the time of greenlight , we underutilize that two year period to source fans, aggregate them and provide them with both the ramps and the bridges necessary to lead them to our work and then carry them to other new work.
  15. How come our Industry can't develop more stars? The talented actors exist, but they don't have "value". Why is it that we don't we have more serious actors who are worth something financially? Isn't it just about giving them the roles that help them build audiences? Why don't we encourage more actors to take more risks in terms of the characters they portray? Audiences, filmmakers, financiers would all be better served by industy-wide initiatives to launch more talent. Say what you will about the studio system of old, but they were damn good about developing new talent.
  16. We need a greater embrace of innovation and experimentation in terms of both business models and building communities. We keep doing things based on the status quo, long after the practice has stopped being fruitful. People are so fearful of failing publicly that new approaches are shunned. This is a perception and PR problem as much as it is a structural one. Will to fail, and encourage risk taking (but be practical about it).
  17. We allow consumers to think content should be free but it is okay that the hardware to play it on is very very expensive. All the entertainment industries allow the hardware manufacturers to have policies that encourage such thinking. They get rich and it grows harder to be a creator by the day. People only want the devices because there is so much great stuff to play on it. Why is the balance of wealth so misguided here?
  18. We - neither the creators, audiences, or their representatives - don't make a stink when aggregators get rich, and the content creators live on mere pittances. It's not just the product but also the services that have flourished on the labors of the creators. Instead of growing angry we have been embracing those that gather and not those that grow. Again, we need to look at the inequity here and re-evaluate how the equity is dispersed.
  19. We don't insist that our artists are also entrepreneurs. We don't encourage direct sales to the fans. We don't focus on building mailing lists. This needs to be as much accepted "best practices" as it needs to be part of every art school curriculum. We can't keep producing artists and not prepare them to survive in the world. Passion without a plan to support it can only lead to exploitation.
  20. We have failed to engage constructively with other industries that we should be aligned with, most appreciatively, the tech world. How come only SXSW is where film, music, and tech meet? Can't we do better? The music industry has The Future Of Music summit, but there is nothing similar in the film world. The facilitators at the agencies rarely know who's who in terms of web and tech designers.
  21. Where is the simple site where you can get whatever you want whenever you want however you want (other than what the bootleggers offer)? How come we let the thieves beat us at our own game? Soon it will be too late to win the people back. The fact that the one place that comes close is ultimately in the business of selling hardware -- and the industry seems okay with that -- shows how we can't see the forest for the trees.
  22. Who are the new curators? The ones with a national or international audience? How come we have not had a more concentrated industry/community wide effort to give a home to all the fired film critics? Is it that we are afraid of the bad, just like the studios are afraid of social media and film future exchanges because they are worried about negative buzz. We just need to make better movies and treat people well and then there is no negative to spread, right? Anyway, with such a plethora of great work being made we need to offer audiences better filters to sift through it. What's up with our collective failure to deliver more Oprahs, individuals whose support will lead to action?
  23. The majority in the film industry are essentially luddites and technophobes, barely aware of the tools we have available to us to enhance, economize, and spread our work. How can we teach our industry how to use what has already been invented (and then we can focus on the things we need but don't yet have).
  24. We don't encourage (or demand) audience "builds" prior to production. Why shouldn't every filmmaker or filmmaking team be required to have 5000 Fans prior to greenlight?
  25. We know incredibly little about our audience or their behavior. We spend so much money making our films without really knowing who are audiences are, why they want our product, how to reach them, or how they behave, or how they are changing. Does any other industry think so late about their audience? Does any other industry do so little research into their audience? Shouldn't we all be sharing what info we have?
  26. There is no "non-partisan" free-thought industry think tank and/or incubator to consider new models, new approaches, and enhance audience appeal. Such an institution could also inspire both government and private investment, not to mention develop "best practices" to maximize revenue. It might even expand aesthetic methods, who knows?
  27. Where's that list on best practices for preventing your film from being pirated? Shouldn't all producers know this? I know I don't and I can't name another producer that does.
  28. The Industry has no respect for producers. Granted, this might sound a tad self-serving, but producers overhead, fees, credits, and support are under attack from all fronts. Yet it is the producers who identify and develop the material and talent, package it, structure the finance, identify the audience, and unite all the industry's disparate elements. All the producers I speak to wonder how they are to survive and remain in the business.
  29. Let's face it, we are not good at providing filmmakers with long term career planning. Whether it's financial planning, secondary professions, or just on going learning -- we don't really get it, and that sets artist up as future prey. As an industry, and as a class, creative people get stuck in a rut quite easily, and are the hardest dogs to teach new tricks.
  30. With our world and industry changing daily, shouldn't we have come up with a place where we learn the new technology or at least hear of it. One that is welcoming even for the luddites. The tech sites speak their own vernacular which is a tad intimidating for the unenniciated.
  31. Where's the embrace of the short term release? With digital delivery here can't we get in and get out, only to return again and offer it all over again? The week long booking of one film per theater limits content to that which appeals to the mass market. Niche audiences are being underserved, and money is thus being left on the table and some highly appealing menus not even being considered.
  32. Film Festivals need to evolve a hell of a lot faster. Festivals need to ask what their value-add is to both the filmmaker and the audience. One or two could ask that of the industry overall too. Now that we recognize that festivals are not a market, and that filmmakers have to do a tremendous amount of work ahead of time in order for them to be a media launch, the question remains what are festivals and who do they serve? The everything-to-everybody style of curating no longer works. The run-of-the-mill panels have become dull and boring. The costs associated for filmmakers attending are rarely worth the benefits they receive. Film Festivals need to be rebuilt. There are a lot of good ideas out there on how to do it, but not enough has been put into practice.
  33. The past ten years of digital film are going to vanish. We do little to preserve not just the works, but also the process and documents behind it. Digital is not a stable medium. We have a migration and storage issue in terms of keeping access up to date. All those films that currently exist in digital format only won't stand the test of time. Film remains a better format for archival purposes. We need to take action soon if we are not going to see our recent culture be out of reach.
  34. We don't encourage advocacy around the issues that effect us. How many film industry professionals could rattle off the top ten government policies that effect their trade? How come our various support organizations, unions, guilds, and leaders don't list issues and actions at the top of their website? Are we all so afraid of biting the hand that feeds us?
  35. Okay, it's a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but it seems to me that film industry folk spend less time going to the movies (and I mean seeing films in the theaters) than the average bear. Going to the movies should be viewed as a political act. Support the culture you want with your dollars.
  36. Most of the bootlegging that I encounter comes from within the industry itself. I recently heard of a manager who asked the studio execs and his Facebook friends to send in the bootlegs of his Sundance prize winning client's film -- and he got over 70 back; they all unfortunately were an early cut of the film too. I admit I get a lot of free DVDs from agents & managers, and I admit I make dubs for my directors so they can see actors -- but I have started to donate to crowdfunding campaigns to try to balance it out. We have to come up with a uniform practice and commitment to avoid the Industry supported bootlegging.
  37. So few of us have determined what we love, not just in film, but in the world in general. The more we have defined these things, the more we strive to bring them into existence. The more we now what we want, the greater our defenses are against that which we do not want to participate. Where are the filmmakers who can list the things they think can lead us to make better films? If more filmmakers, distributors, and executives conversed more publicly in both the art and the business, the bar for all of us would be lifted higher.
  38. We love to read, talk, and engage more about the business than we do about the art. Some of this comes perhaps because we have more forums for the business than the aesthetics, but it is much harder to get a conversation going about creative issues than it is about financial. I'm just saying...

Follow Ted Hope on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TedHope

gracias Lance Weiler! seismic shifts are taking place all around us....time for visionaries to step in

'Where is Our Transmedia Mozart?' MIT Convergence Culture Consortium

Media_httpdoalchemyor_dmoxa

Alex Leavitt has a very interesting post on 'Where is Our Transmedia Mozart?' working through some interesting graphing of the transmedia landscape. I'm not sure I view 'influence' as a solely commercially oriented phenomenom, as influence also seems to be fundamental to community building and fan convergence. I might be quibbling though

Hi Alex,

thanks for a very thoughtful post that I very much agree with. One question - are you defining 'influence' as a largely commercial phenomenon? I might want to push back on that...

I would also add artists as likely producers of truly rich, layered transmedia content. This may mean that we see smaller scale projects that are not produced at the level of studio/network productions, but that are stretching and innovating in terms of how stories can be told & played with, and extended - by fans & core creators. I intentionally use the category 'artist' broadly, as I think we're going to see artists from all media shifting into exploring the potential of the web & digital media

Poor Frizzy Hair Claire

Poor Frizzy Hair Claire

 

I began thinking about Claire on LOST this morning as I put styling product into my naturally curly hair. Am I the only one who noticed that when the time lines diverged this season that dark-side Claire is now visually coded by her mass of unbelievably bad frizzy hair?

 

Why is it that this particular feature should be the signifier of her allegiance to ‘Dark’ Locke? Why is it with all of our great leaps forward in accepting difference & diversity Claire’s frizzy hair immediately telegraphs evil?

 

Poor frizzy uncared for hair, somehow unable to fall into the seductive unkempt locks of Kate (likely ferociously styled but still looking natural). 

 

When I think about frizzy hair, the only two eras I can think of where frizz was beautiful are the 70s (obviously - bring on the free love, natural body odours, and liberated hair follicles) or the 18th century. Although, even my immediate images of the 18th century are mediated by films made IN the 70s.

 

So while I am loving this last season of LOST & am tensely awaiting the finale, I will quietly mourn the need to code the dark side through Claire’s unstyled, badly in need of product hair. And while I’m thinking about it, let me just go check mine.

 

(download)