Tuesday 8 June 2010

A vision of future animation technologies; essay assignment...

In this essay I will be looking at the way animation is experienced from an end user point of view. With the advent of 3-d and high definition we have got to a point that we can produce images far past the capabilities of our sight. In other words; we are capable of ultra realism.

True realism is only now being confined to top end movies by the capability to mimic the way life plays out; and not the way it looks. You can take a still form a number of ultra-real animated films which have not got the motions side of things sussed and they look believable; but apply the movement and something fundamental is missing. This used to be referred to as the ‘uncanny valley’, where an animated character just did not look human enough. But in the big budget films that is now sussed. We can overcome that with the top end productions. So to enhance the experience further…lets take a journey into the not so distant future and look at the final piece in the animation pipeline...the viewer.

With the so called need for even more security measures; it is not going to be long before we all have identity chips inserted into our bodies at birth, these things are already here (RFID chips-Radio frequency Identification chips) and some people have been experimenting with them for some time.

Dr Gasson of Reading University, in an interview with the BBC reported that he has been using a chip for some time to make sure that only he uses his telephone or only he can get into his office.

The tag, which is a more advanced version of the animal tagging system, has had its problems, such as picking up viruses. He believes that people would have the procedure done once the benefits outweigh the possible negatives. These benefits could involve greater memory or the way that any audio/visual information is processed. With advances in processors and nanotech; there is no reason that synthetic neural stimulants could be produced by nanobots to enhance viewing or gaming experiences in the future. There are already nanobots that can go in to the body and produce or repair damaged cells; so why not enhance the experience of watching a film or playing a game?

These could be triggered in the film producing hidden signals such as ‘blipverts’ which are not consciously noticed; but would activate the nanobots.

As advances in the way we interact with the films and games we play and watch get more sophisticated; there is also the possibility of the nanobots gathering information about the state of our body and mind and transferring the information to the RFID chip which in turn could tell the computer/Film player what ending would be most satisfying for us. This concept has been around since the time of role playing books where you choose your own ending; but to do it without actually knowing would be a different experience; and offers the possibility of a different ending each day (as long as the scenarios have been produced).

With the capabilities of modern terminals and the possibility of a screen being able to produce more than one image at a time on the same surface; also sound that is ultra directional; this would make this a near future possibility. In reality I can see the big screen being actually in the eye; where all the information is actually transferred into the brain wirelessly and it is a very personal experience.

The problems which could be produced by having a set-up like this; where one is taken into another consciousness are quite obvious; the real world could be seen as a necessary evil; and market forces would again put it out of reach for everyone but the most well off; resulting in possible physical and mental addiction and depression on withdrawal. An experience like this was the subject of James Camerons ‘Avatar; and has been used before in Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm (1983) to name another, both with different takes on it. To combat any crime involved with the theft of any software; each experience could have a genetic fingerprint of the one person that it is meant for and this would stop any theft possibilities. Cloning chips would possibly not be a problem; I am sure communication between the genetics of the host and the nanobots would ensure this would not take place.

With people walking around covered in technology such as Bluetooth headsets and pedometers; and our environment full of it; such as counters and scanners implanted in roads and cameras with face recognition software on most town and city corners; it won’t be long before this technology is used in the field of entertainment.

It’s just a matter of when the pro’s outweigh the cons and people begin to cross over into the realms of this ‘electronic conjuncture’. I am sure that the people will have to decide they want to do it and it will not be enforced; but to convince the people what they actually want has never been that hard….We will see.

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