Latest news with #hologram
CTV News
14-07-2025
- CTV News
Woman charged with using counterfeit cash in Muskoka
From left, a counterfeit bill compared to an authentic one on the right. Note the details in the hologram that do not show up in the fake. (File photo/RCMP)
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lana Del Rey at Wembley review: her voice is enthralling but the night is uneven
It's gone nine o'clock in Wembley Stadium and there is no sign of Lana Del Rey. True to form, the American singer is fashionably late to her own show — that London noise curfew be damned. Staff entertain the crowd by setting off Mexican waves. Nobody seems to mind that much. All the criticisms from her earlier shows hold true. This is not a multi-hour marathon a la Taylor or Beyoncé. Instead, there's a casual 90-hour run time with multiple breaks for dancers to perform dream ballets to an eerie hologram of Del Rey. One is a cover for a (barely noticeable) costume change, the other seemingly just because. Only 12 or so of her own songs are sung live; the rest are recordings or covers. But when she sings there is something alchemical, like she's pulling it from another dimension. Some lines do tail away, Del Rey staring with that blank-eyed look she has perfected. But this is all part of her Fifties-housewife-on-Quaaludes shtick. Then she turns around and has fun with it, embellishing her most famous lines with ease. She appears to have wisely dissolved her lip fillers, allowing for every pout, snarl and lip quiver to deliver on the jumbotron. Although compact, the set list has some excellent runs. Chemtrails Over The Country Club is followed by Ultraviolence, at which point the stage breaks out in blood-red strobing. Ride and then Video Games. Young and Beautiful, Summertime Sadness and Born to Die come in a flurry, followed by — in a fabulous surprise — Venice Bitch. As Del Rey herself pointed out, she hasn't sung that one live for years. The covers are all excellent choices, thematically on point and showcasing Del Rey's ability to make a song entirely her own. Her version of Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man is goosebump-raising. Addison Rae, who was a delight as the opening act, joins Del Rey on stage towards the end for a rendition of her hit Diet Pepsi. As for the staging, it's... a lot. Maybe it could best be described as a Southern Gothic twist on Miss Havisham. Del Rey enters through the front door of a peeling blue clapboard house, draping herself around a rickety porch in a yellowed lace dress. Dancers haunt the swampy stage in white dresses like an Americana Gisele. Del Rey - dressed in custom Valentino, designed by Creative Director Alessandro Michele - sits on a swing as though Fragonard painted her in Florida. There's a bridal prosession where flowers pop out of the stage in sync with Del Rey's steps, leading to a rose arch on a scissor lift. Every image is beautiful and strange, like a moodboard left out to get mildewed and stained. But often the staging felt over-busy, with Del Rey lost in the maelstrom. Did we really need the pole dancers shimmying up old-fashioned street lights, fans and feathers whirling and twirling, a piano that rose from the podium just to drip water. Her repertoire's themes of self-destructive love can stand alone. It doesn't need to be underscored to literally by setting fire to the house while singing about setting a house on fire. Unfortunately, the spectacle can feel like a cover for Del Rey's laconic performing style. It feels churlish to compare Del Rey to the other women artists currently tour. Perhaps seeing Charli xcx, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo alone in the past month has blown my tastebuds out for pop extravaganzas and feats of physical and emotional exertion. Del Rey's voice is so wondrous, her every micro expression so enthralling, that she could have performed alone on stage in a single spotlight and it would have been enough. But then, could they have charged so much for tickets? Lana Del Rey at Wembley Stadium, 4 July, tickets and infomation here.
Medscape
24-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Hologram Doctor: Not Who I'd Like to Visit, Says Ethicist
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hi. I'm Art Caplan. I'm at the Division of Medical Ethics, at NYU Langone Health System in New York City. I am not a hologram. What am I talking about? Well, a new cancer clinic in Tennessee is starting to offer to its patients a hologram doctor. Some of you will know what this is like. It's been used now in shows and performances, like at Sphere in Las Vegas. All of a sudden, you're able to go to a show by Michael Jackson, who is long since dead, but they can project him onto the stage. This is also true for other singers, performers, or even figures from the past. They're very realistic looking, and you feel like you're in the presence of maybe someone who's still alive. That technology is being touted as a way to improve care for people in rural areas. Many of those folks have to travel very far to get regular exams and surveillance from a doctor or a nurse. Some of them require a 3- or 4-hour drive. It's a real burden. It's hard for many of these people, some of whom are frail, older, or sick from the treatments themselves. It's hard for them to get there. The clinic has come up with this idea to make a hologram of a generic doctor, put that doctor in a studio with good lighting and good technology, and beam it out to the homes of these patients — or let them travel somewhere where the setup is a little more friendly that is maybe not 3 hours away. Maybe they could have studios that, for many people, are only an hour away. I see some benefit. I think doing video conferencing and that style of thing often is a little cold and distant. The lighting isn't good, and the sound may be bad. It's not a professional production, and it may not give you the nuance and the detail that you want to see if you're trying to do an exam. It's better, if you will, to have the higher-level tech. There are issues. One, in rural areas, we don't really have great Wi-Fi service. The rates of carrying detailed signals aren't that good. I'm not sure much of this is going to make it into a rural person's home. I still see travel required, which cuts back in some ways on the attractiveness. It may be better to send the actual doctor to four or five clinics once in a while than to try and rely on the hologram doctor going out to the rural patients at locations where the signal still is not going to be that great. I also worry that for much of this work, while you can see some things, you can't see other things. Yes, you can detect a rash, and sure, you could see certain things about certain skin cancers, but are we really ready to say that we can conduct an exam remotely on a cancer patient with complicated disease? I'm not sure. Again, I'm no oncologist, but it makes me nervous that a thorough exam would be something you could do. In a weird way, this might work better for dermatology. It might work better for certain kinds of family medicine practice, where someone's nervous about a rash, headache, or some symptoms that you could handle remotely. This patient group strikes me as maybe more complicated. The other problem is the legal situation is unclear. What would it mean to make an error? What would it mean to actually give bad advice or misdiagnose? Who's responsible? Who's going to be able to hold someone accountable? What if the patient really isn't comfortable and doesn't give you all the information that they might if it was face-to-face? In person, that whole area looks murky, unresolved, and even dangerous to practice in until the rules are laid out clearly about who's responsible for what and what the standard of care is for using this kind of technology. Are we going to see more of it in the future? I think so. Is it ready for prime time now to an underserved rural population? I'm not sure it's here yet. We'll have to keep an eye on it. Maybe improvements will come. Maybe our infrastructure for handling Wi-Fi and this kind of thing will improve, but for now, I'm not sure that the hologram doctor is the doctor that I'd want to visit. I'm Art Caplan, at the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Health Systems. Thanks for watching.
Arab News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Festival of fun: Riyadh expo highlights best in entertainment technology
Some of the weirdest and most wonderful innovations are on show at this year's Saudi Entertainment and Amusement Expo in Riyadh. With 350 exhibitors plus talks and discussions with industry leaders from around the world, the three-day event opened on Tuesday and is expected to attract about 12,000 visitors. Among the products on show is a hologram zoo designed by Australian company Axiom Holographics, which was featured in Time magazine's list of technologies of the year for 2023. Brendan Hodgkins, global sales manager, said: 'We package a full suite of hologram equipment that can be integrated into family entertainment centers, theme parks or shopping malls. 'During our trials, we attracted 25,000 people in just 42 days, generating over $550,000 in revenue.' He said that the company had already sold more than 40 of its 'zoos' around the world and was keen to expand into the Saudi market. 'We're eager to bring this innovation to Saudi Arabia to help shape the future of entertainment in the Kingdom.' Another of the exhibits on show, and possibly the largest, is a 20-meter tall inflatable ogre, designed and built by Anka Inflatable Co. from Guangzhou in southern China. A representative of the company, who gave his name only as John, said the product was ideal for larger venues, like amusement parks. While the purple monster attracted plenty of visitors at the show, the technology can be adapted to suit the end-user's needs, John said. '(It) can be customized in many shapes and the skin can be changed after one, two, or three years. It's also collapsible and easy to transport,' he said. Anka was also keen to increase its profile in the region, he said. 'Many of my friends have built successful companies here. The relationship between China and Saudi Arabia is strong and this is a very good market for us.' Besides the products on show, the expo is also being used to attract new people into the industry, with the Saudi Entertainment Academy promoting a series of training programs with links to future career opportunities. 'Our vision is to focus on professional training through diploma programs,' Sultan bin Jumaiah, a sales specialist with the academy, said. 'We aim to provide professional candidates for companies looking to hire. After completing our diploma, students will have the opportunity to join various companies in this sector.' The initiative aligns with Saudi Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify the economy and create new job opportunities for Saudi citizens.
CNET
20-05-2025
- CNET
Google Beam Promises Futuristic AI-Powered 3D Video Chats
Beam me up, Google. Video chats could have a much more sci-fi feel with Google Beam, an AI-powered video communications platform that aims to make it feel like you're meeting up in person. Google announced Beam, an evolution of its Google Starline technology, at its annual I/O developers conference on Tuesday. Google has teamed up with HP to commercialize the system. Google Beam uses a six-camera array that captures the subject from different angles. An AI video model puts the views together in real-time to create a 3D person. Google says the system features near-perfect head tracking down to the millimeter with video at 60 frames per second. The idea is reminiscent of any number of holographic communications systems seen in everything from Star Wars to Star Trek. Unlike the tiny, low-quality Princess Leia hologram from A New Hope, Beam is designed to be life-sized and lifelike. Google once described the technology as a "magic window." Enlarge Image Google's Starline technology platform is growing up and getting a new name, Google Beam. Google The platform uses a light field display that doesn't require wearing any special equipment. CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti tried out Starline last year and called it "the closest thing to a hologram I've ever seen." Speech translation, a feature Google is bringing to Google Meet, could come to Beam as well, Google said. Google introduced Starline as a research project in 2021 and has been testing and refining prototypes ever since. Today's announcement means the technology is closing in on being ready for prime time. Video calls have long been plagued with challenges. It can be hard to read expressions and gestures. Traditional video chats are missing a sense of eye contact. Zoom fatigue was a hot topic during the height of COVID-19. Beam wants to address those issues with a more immersive and lifelike experience. Google said HP will share more about the platform at the InfoComm audio visual technology exhibition in June. Google is also working with Zoom and other audio visual companies. Beam will likely find its footing first with larger organizations that want to shake up the way they handle videoconferencing. The first Beam devices will be available for early adopters later in 2025, so start practicing your "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." Beam isn't Google's only big announcement of the day. Check out everything that's been revealed at Google I/O.
