While Netscape didn’t invent the Internet or HTML, it was the company that made the Internet real. Netscape went ahead with the creation of Tim Berners-Lee’s HTML and was instrumental in turning it into something that will change the world.
Last week at Siggraph, Nvidia’s opening keynote identified Universal Scene Description (USD), developed by Pixar, a Disney subsidiary, as the HTML equivalent for the Metaverse. Since Pixar wouldn’t exist without Steve Jobs, it’s like putting Pixar where Berners-Lee was, and Nvidia where Netscape was, but unlike Netscape, Nvidia is very well run and knows its battles. How to choose
Nvidia also talked about the future of the Metaverse, where avatars will become browser-like, creating a whole new level of human/machine interface. Nvidia also announced the concept of Neural Graphics, which is based heavily on AI to create more realistic Metaverse graphical elements with far less work.
This week let’s talk more about what happened at Siggraph — and how Nvidia and Disney can, and should, demonstrate their strengths at the forefront of the Metaverse.
Then we’ll close our product of the week, the HP Halo product, with an update on the Dragonfly laptop, which has just released its third edition. Halo products showcase the full capabilities of the seller and draw people to the brand, and it’s well positioned against the best of Apple.
Metaverse and Disney
I’m a former Disney employee and I can’t think of any other company on the content side that would be a better base for building the Metaverse.
Disney has always been about fantasy and trying to make magic real. While the firm has had problems maintaining its innovative leadership over the years, it still attracts all its peers, especially youth, across all age groups in terms of physical, magical places to see and film content.
It is tempting that the concept of the Multiverse, which could easily become a Metaverse creation, as illustrated by the Marvel Universe, which is also owned by Disney, suggests that as the Metaverse moved into the consumer market. Goes on, Disney could be even more powerful. The driver of this new technology for fun.
That’s a long way to say that given its relationship with the USD and entertainment, Disney may be the best-positioned media company to take advantage of this new paradigm and turn its version of the metaverse into something truly amazing. Imagine the potential of Metaverse Disney parks that kids can enjoy from their homes during extreme weather events, pandemics or wars.
Nvidia’s One Metaverse Movement
Right now, the metaverse is a mess. It appears that companies like Meta and Google are creating experiences that, like CompuServe and AOL, were done at the dawn of the Internet, which the market did not want.
The reason those wall-garden efforts didn’t survive is because no single company can meet the needs of each user. Once they gave way to the open Internet, the technology really took off, and AOL and CompuServe largely faded into history.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is a big believer in the metaverse. He refers to it as Web 3.0 – the successor to Web 2.0 (the Internet as we know it today, with changes to the cloud and user-generated content). This concept of a generic metaverse, with elements that you can move on seamlessly, requires a great deal of standardization and advancements in physical interfaces like VR goggles.
Huang addressed this during the keynote, speaking of the massive advances in headset technology that in the future will bring VR glasses much closer to the size and weight of reading glasses, making them less tedious and annoying. . However, recalling our problems with 3D glasses, the industry will still need to address the overwhelming dislike of consumers for prosthetic interfaces if the effort is to reach its full potential.
One of the most interesting parts of this presentation was the concept of neural graphics, or graphics enhanced significantly by AI, which reduce the cost and speed of scanning things in the real world and turning them into mirror images in the virtual world. increase. At the event, Nvidia presented about 16 papers on neural graphics, two of which won awards.
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Building on Pixar’s concept of Universal Scene Description, Huang explained how, once these virtual elements were created, they would be linked via AI to ensure that they remain in sync with the real world, Enables complex digital twins that can be used effectively for extreme precision. Simulation for both business and entertainment purposes.
This made me wonder how long it would take before we had the incarnation of Huang, who was revealed to be the keynote speaker, was actually the keynote speaker. With Huang’s progress in terms of avatar realism and emotion, there will come a time when avatars will be far better at such presentations than humans.
Up to this point, Huang introduced a concept called Audio2Face which combines a voice track with an avatar that creates realistic facial expressions, conveys emotion and is often indistinguishable from an actor’s appearance.
To do this realistically, they mapped facial muscles and then allowed the AI to learn how people manipulated those muscles for different emotions and the ability to edit those emotions after the fact. . I have no doubt that the kids of tomorrow will have a lot more fun than this and in the future will create some deeply murky issues that we will need to address.
With Audio2Face MDL, a new content definition language, and neural VDB that can reduce video file sizes by up to 99%, create a pattern of increased resolution and realism while reducing the overall cost of effort.
Back to Disney: This technology could allow the company to create more compelling streaming and movie theater content while reducing its production budget, which would be huge for its top and bottom tiers.
Finally, Huang talked about a cloud publishing service for Avatars called Omniverse ACE. This could potentially open up a market for avatar creation, which in itself could be a highly profitable new tech industry.
wrapping up
With tremendous gains in USD and multi-age group content, Disney is in a unique position to benefit from our move into the metaverse.
However, the technology company to watch in this space is Nvidia which is at the forefront of creating this Web 3.0 metaverse creation that will be fast-forward to the Internet as we know it and provide us with amazing new experiences – and undoubtedly new ones. Problems we plague haven’t identified yet – much like the Internet.
In their respective fields, both Nvidia and Disney are forces of nature, and betting against either company has proven unwise. Together, they are creating a metaverse that will surprise, entertain and help solve global problems like climate change.
What is being built for the metaverse is simply amazing. For another example, look at this:
We are at the forefront of another technological revolution. Once done, the world will become a mixture of the real and the virtual and will be forever changed again.
HP Elite Dragonfly G3
Halo products are expensive and somewhat exclusive offerings that often show what a company can do, regardless of price.
The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 is the third generation of this Halo product, and it’s a relatively affordable showcase of HP’s laptop capabilities.
Lighter than most of its competitors, including the MacBook, sporting the latest 12th Gen Intel Core processors, and promising up to 22 hours of battery life (video), this 2.2-pound laptop is an impressive piece of kit.
HP Elite Dragonfly G3 | image credit: HP
Some interesting features include a mechanical privacy shade for the 5MP front-facing camera that is activated electronically from the keyboard.
The laptop comes in a unique Slate Blue finish which I think looks awesome. This latest generation was designed for the new hybrid world many of us now live in, where we both work from home but sometimes have to go to the office.
It has Wi-Fi 6e for better wireless connectivity and supports 5G WAN for times when Wi-Fi is either too insecure or too unrealistic.
The Elite Dragonfly G3 has a unique 3:2 aspect ratio instead of the more typical panoramic display. The latter may be better for films but 3:2 is better for work. Laptops in this class are expected to focus more on content creation than on entertainment. This high screen also enabled a large touchpad that includes a fingerprint reader for security.
The ports on this unit, which has a 13.5-inch display, are surprisingly complete for one of the thinnest laptops I’ve tested. In addition to two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, it has a full-size USB port and a full-size HDMI port, both of which are unusual but unheard of in a laptop this small and light.
HP Elite Dragonfly G3 Right-Side Ports | image credit: HP
The product is relatively durable, using a magnesium/aluminum frame that is largely from recycled metals and designed to be recycled again as the laptop gets older.
In conclusion, it is potentially one of the most secure laptops in its class with the Wolf Pro security option for those who want extra security. Interestingly, starting at just $2,000, the Wolf Security Edition is also one of the most affordable.
I was at the launch of HP’s first Dragonfly laptop and I am very impressed with this offering which is my product of the week. I’m going to hate giving this laptop back.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.