SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

The 3D Entertainment Summit kicks off on Monday. Keynoters include James Cameron and Jeffrey Katzenberg; here’s the most recent press release. I will be moderating a panel addressing The Impact of 3D on the Future of Gaming featuring Neil Schneider of Must Be Seen, the recently endoctored CTO Andrew Oliver of Blitz Games Studios, and 3D guru Andrew Fear of Nvidia.

Meanwhile, check out Must Be Seen’s interview with the event’s founder Bob Dowling, the former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and evp of VNU.

Here’s more proof that games and 3D movies are mainstream entertainment. Passengers aboard Disney Cruise Lines ships can enjoy the latest in 3D movies and games, as detailed in John Gaudiosi’s Gaming Guru blog for WRAL-TV. They could watch Bolt in 3D on November 21, before most local cinemas got it in 3D and weeks before the movie is released in most countries, in one of the ship’s two theaters. All of Disney’s 3D movies are in the screening schedule. John also detailed the numerous video games that are placed in age-appropriate areas, and he learned about an upcoming motion-sensor game that will let a crowd of kids steer Captain Jack Sparrow’s ship through an obstacle course on a giant screen outside on the deck.

Scattershot legal threats as a copyright protection strategy are incurring the wrath of the mainstream British press, as per this article by Tony Levene in the Guardian. He cites the example of a “bewildered” and non-computer savvy couple in their 60s who received a 20-page “pre-settlement letter” from lawyers Davenport Lyons insisting the unsuspecting pair had illegally downloaded a Nazi-tinged gay porn film called Army Fuckers. The couple was offered the stark choice of paying £503 ($775) or facing a High Court action under the British Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Michael Coyle of the law firm Lawdit, who said Davenport Lyons represents DigiProtect, offers a £50 ($80 this week) service for those who wrongfully received one of these letters. He believes some consumers are paying up because they cannot afford the legal costs of defending themselves. He also thinks the demanded sums are “out of proportion to the alleged injury” and that the methods used to indentify users are unreliable.

Davenport Lyons gave a statement to the Guardian that said in part: “We allow ample opportunity for the recipient to respond, and if they have done nothing wrong they have no reason to be concerned.” That’s so reassuring.

Kato Kaelin has joined the search for the real killer – of the electric car, anyway, and only as part of a new satire from Fun Little Movies. The mobile content studio is releasing an ad-supported series called No News Is Good News, a comedic satire that promises, “Total planetary destruction never felt so good when a team of crack reporters give nifty survival tips for the coming global superstorm!”

The series is produced by mobile entertainment pioneer Frank Chindamo and Gosch Productions and stars Debra Skelton (née Wilson) from Mad TV and Hayden Black (pictured) from Goodnight Burbank and Abi’s Teen Diary. They and Kaelin play television personalities on the fictional program.

Associated Press is demanding that broadband access to future Olympic Games be opened up. Sports Business Journal reported on a speech given by AP president and CEO Tom Curley at a closed-door meeting with the International Olympic Committee

in Vancouver, during which Curley called existing restrictions “unacceptable” and threatened court action if necessary. SBJ quoted from a copy of Curley’s speech that it obtained:

“The model that still predominates in Olympic coverage and content distribution is TV-centric, rights-holder-controlled and appointment-driven. No successful media company or sports authority can continue to operate that way in a world that has shifted to always-on, user-controlled access to news and information.”

Reporter Tripp Mickle noted that only rights holders are permitted to bring video cameras inside Olympic venues, adding that NBC paid $894 million for the Beijing broadcast rights, even though AP was partnered with the network to provide text and video content online during the Games. (Via Paid Content)

Social network enriched music service Imeem has turned up the volume lately. Earlier today (Monday) it announced that Kia Motors has signed on to promote its Kia Soul by sponsoring Imeem’s Android application. Yesterday its news was having the exclusive rights to stream Britney Spears’ new album Circus, building up to the December 2nd release date. Imeem has had exclusives before, but nothing this likely to bring the brand to mainstream awareness.

Imeem’s strength is that users can legally embed a streaming playlist widget into their own websites, blogs or wherever, making it easy to share one’s personal taste and to start that viral magic all marketers strive for. Since the company bought Snocap in April, its back end has much to offer labels and artists as well.

Listen to the opening chord of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night and try to figure out its tablature. Go ahead, join the countless musicians who have been trying to emulate that sound since 1964. Four years ago Dr. Jason Brown of Dalhousie University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics – and an amateur musician himself – decided to have a go.

He used Fourier transforms to reverse engineer the chord. (True confession – I took calculus and acoustics but never got as far as Fourier transforms.) His conclusion is that the sound is impossible to play without the addition of someone – probably Sir George Martin – adding a little piano. It’s not really news, but nonetheless yay math. (Via /.)

Focused audio streams are being used to debilitate pirates with pain. An AFP news report talks to private British company Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, which has been renting out three-man teams of ex-military personnel along with a long range acoustic device (LRAD) and an MP3 player. LRADs can zap the target with a precise beam of sound that can be disturbing up to 1,000 meters and excruciating with permanent hearing damage within 100 to 200 meters at full power. According to APMSS, one of its crews thwarted a pirate attack on a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden last week, just 15 miles off the Yemen coast.

This isn’t a new technology, but it’s still fascinating and has yet to reach its commercial potential. I wrote a story in 2003 about the two main American companies working in this field, HoloSonic Research Labs and the American Technology Co., in which I focused on the entertainment applications. I later reported on General Motors using Holosonics’ Audio Spotlight (sorry, behind subscription wall) so kids in the back seat could watch DVDs without headphones but without the adults in the front seat being able to hear the movie’s audio. (Picture of Holosonics founder Dr. F. Joseph Pompei with Audio Spotlight installation.)

Gizmodo has posted a Complete Guide to Playing Video Files using your PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii to connect your computer to your TV set. Forwarding this link has already saved me having to answer several tech support questions from friends and family. Thanks, author John Mahoney.

Many people come to Los Angeles determined to be seen on a screen somewhere, undeterred by an utter lack of talent, experience or knowledge. A recently released title from Xbox 360, Codemasters and Zoë Mode means these people no longer have to wait tables or park cars – they can stay home and play You’re in the Movies, a family-friendly game that simplifies greenscreen technology concepts into casual entertainment.

The current ad campaign features Burt Reynolds, who does a good job of conveying the game’s intentional lack of seriousness. The ads and the official website show how players choose a script, act it out using the Xbox Live Vision camera, and almost instantly watch and share the results. A bundle comprised of the camera with the game costs $70 (the camera on its own has been retailing for $40). As part of the seasonal promotional activities, select consumer movies will premiere on Clear Channel Communications’ big screen in New York’s Times Square.

Game choices include performing as the star, compete (with scoring) against each other in Casting Call, and Director’s Chair, which enables voiceovers, changing background music, and editing clips into a trailer.