Over the course of nearly twenty years in the corporate world, I find that often times organizational health boils down to how empowered do employees feel to have influence over their work lives. Interestingly, this perception of empowerment often manifests itself as a result of the quality (or lack thereof) of communication and transparency around key issues facing the company and executive decision making.

I’ve seen a handful of examples over the years of managers who make the effort to share the key issues they’re grappling with, and ask for employee input having stronger than average organizational health metrics,  greater appreciation for and acceptance of the decisions they make, and high levels of loyalty from their employees.

Its human nature. The more information people have, the more they tend to feel confident, secure, committed to, or at least prepared for what lies ahead. We want this in our everyday personal lives, so why wouldn’t we also want this in our work lives as well? In our personal lives we can often go out “get” this information on our own, but in our work lives, we often need management to share this information with us.

Of course this is easier said than done. Truly interactive exchanges between executive managers and employees are difficult to facilitate. One option often employed is the company-wide email update from the CEO with the possibility of responding to a monitored alias where a business manager would filter out all but a handful of mails that the CEO would respond to and post on some internal website. For more critical issues, the company-wide, or perhaps division-wide meeting might be employed,  where the executive will get on stage, provide an update to the employees, and follow it up with 30 – 60 minutes of Q&A. In either case the two way interaction never feels entirely satisfying.

For this reason, I found Charlene Li’s call for the use of social media in creating authentic and transparent business culture in her book Open Leadership to be an extremely compelling example of how social media can gain ground as a critical tool in business that every manager and employee can appreciate.  Of course each organization must, as Li suggests, evaluate what is realistic for them to implement and support in terms of creating true two way engagement, but the notion of asking organizations to assess their transparency and how they can utilize social media tools to create/improve that transparency and two-way dialogue is right on.

I suspect that companies that can effectively implement and support these richer types of two way interaction systems internally, will ultimately experience reductions in turn-over, improved employee morale and loyalty. The by-product of these benefits – reduced operational expenses, reduced effort to facilitate buy-in for big change, and perhaps even more employee consumption of company products and/or services.

So, what do you think? Is the real opportunity to drive wide spread use of social media in business not in marketing, but perhaps in internal communications?

The article describes how major media companies, who don’t like the position of influence Netflix has managed to attain in a just a couple of years after expanding their business model to include streaming content via the Internet are considering how they want to tame this new influencer. They feel Netflix is capturing too much revenue and gaining too much influence at their expense, in part because of early licensing deals that gave Netflix access to content at ridiculously low rates and subsequently helped propel them past Blockbuster as the leading online movie rental provider.

So what is their answer? Increase the cost for Netflix to acquire their content and create their own online subscription channels to deliver content. According to the article, Time Warner’s HBO is already in the process of launching a new online offering called HBO GO. As other media providers begin to follow suit, the end result for you and I will be even more fragmentation of content beyond centralized media content channels like Netflix, cable and satellite providers.

One of the great things about the growth of digital media distribution via the Internet is the democratization of media. Big media outlets no longer have the control they once wielded, there is more choice, individuals have more ability to express themselves and these are all good things. There is also downside with the democratization of media certainly, but for the most part it’s a good thing. Yet with premium content like movies and television programming having fewer distribution sources just might be better from a consumer perspective, and this is the perspective I don’t think the media giants are considering. Instead of designing offerings based upon market demand, media giants are designing offerings (and effectively exerting more control over content) purely as a function of increasing profit share.

Consumers of premium online video are extremely selective because they’re being asked to pay for it. They demand comprehensive quality content and convenience. If they don’t get it, they’ll suffer through commercials, or if they’re already cable or satellite subscribers they’ll forgo the added convenience of online viewing and pay per view for movies and watch pre-recorded content on their TiVo or DVR’s. This backlash has already started to play itself out as recently as Nov, when Hulu Plus was forced to announce a subscription cut of $2 in order to compete. This isn’t a good indicator that customers will be willing to pay multiple subscriptions in order to consume premium video content online.  And increasing the cost for centralized providers like Netflix to acquire content will certainly mean either less choice, higher subscription rates or both for users. In turn, this will likely mean fewer people will be willing to subscribe for online content.

So, I ask the question, “Are media conglomerates practicing bad business?”

Prior to the “Deep Blue” match, many attempts had been made to program a system that could play a decent game of chess. These systems were, and are built on a set of algorithms interacting with expert systems (or databases of knowledge) to make “decisions” based upon the problem being presented. They simply evaluated the present problem (placement of pieces), matched that against its existing knowledge base of the board, game rules and opening and endgame scenarios, and then determined its next “move.” These machines didn’t have the capacity of a human to think strategically, contextually and to adapt dynamically. However, Deep Blue did exactly that, and it shook Kasparov. In fact, it was so surprising to him, that he was certain that IBM was cheating some how. It didn’t help that the IBM team was very secretive about it’s system, and even refused to release it’s logs not only during the match, but even afterwards.

Watching “Game Over” inspired me to share a paper I recently wrote regarding the evolution and use of AI in video games. Game AI is a fascinating subject, and many of today’s video games are successful in part based upon their use of AI to create more realistic in-game experiences for players. If you’re interested in a “casual” understanding of what AI for games is, how it came to be used in video games, and how AI helps enhance video game play, feel free to access the paper on my Works page.

As always, I welcome any comments.

In part videos games have become more popular due to increasing photo-realism, better game play and increasingly realistic behavior of characters and objects within the game world – which is driven by game physics engines. In a paper co-authored by myself, Matthew Franco, Chelsey Glasson and Shane Sherwood,we discuss the history of video games and video game physics, provide a review of current trends and practices in video game physics, and look into the future of game physics engines.

Below you can find the paper we wrote (I was specifically responsible for the “current trends” section), as well 3 videos we developed to support the paper.

I would love to hear any comments you have on our paper or any additional insights you care to offer.

Video Game Physics Engines

Citation:

Juul, Jesper. A Casual Revolution. ; Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. MIT, 2009. Print.

In my research, I was able to identify some examples of very real personal benefits in health, commerce and personal finance, yet ongoing infrastructure, political and economic challenges continue to keep these benefits realized mostly at the micro level. Until we can truly measure these benefits to macro level economic indicators, we’ll be hard pressed to say digital media is having real, measurable impact in the fight against poverty.

What do you think?

- HAL 9000 intelligent computer to Astronaut Dave Bowman as he attempts to re-enter the ship after HAL has killed the rest of the ship’s crew. (2001: A Space Odyssey)

I’m certainly not trying to suggest that Project Natal is laying the foundation for a future generation of super intelligent computers that may ultimately turn on their “masters” in the race for the next step in evolution, but the developers at Microsoft are working on the interesting and incredibly difficult artificial intelligence field of machine learning by teaching what they euphemistically refer to as “the brain” to understand what it’s seeing through Natal’s webcam. (Duffy 2010)

What is Project Natal?

Project Natal is a new video game control system that Microsoft is developing for the XBOX 360 that will allow users to control a game system by using body movement rather than a game controller. Think of it as the next evolution of system control protocols, taking the simplification that Nintendo introduced with the Wii wand and then taking it one step further by eliminating the need for any type of physical controller. Essentially, you ARE the controller. (Click here to see Microsoft’s Natal promotional video.)

How does it work?

The system works via a combination of software and a 3-D camera system. Through this combination, it takes your body movement and translates those movements into system control commands. For example a swipe of the hand from left to right might indicate an instruction to move to the next page in a horizontal list. In game play, you might mimic holding a steering wheel to control your car in a driving simulation. Added to that, are programmed voice commands that the system can recognize.

Project Natal 3-D model of the human form

The camera is capable of capturing 3-D imagery by projecting an infrared light on the subject, recording how much of the light the various parts reflect back and the intensity of the signal to approximate that distance between each of the parts of the body, and the distance between those body parts and the camera. This information is then sent back to the software. (Barras 2010; Blake 2010)

The software, or the brain then takes that information and can interpret where the limbs are and the specific angles of each of those limbs. That information is then applied that to a model of the human form via a skeletal tracking technology that applies points to a representation of a 3-D surface. (Duffy 2010; Holmdahl, 2010) This is similar to the motion capture techniques often seen in block buster Hollywood films except that actual motion capture suits with hundreds of remote markers are not required. [More on that a bit later.]

Project Natal Color Coded Body Parts

But how does the computer know exactly what it’s seeing? This is where the machine learning comes in. The software has been programmed to recognize the human form and identify up to 30 essential parts of the human body based upon an analysis of millions of images of the human body in motion that have been painstakingly collected and labeled by Microsoft and fed into the computer. Each image identifies a specific body part such as a hand, and when done over and over the computer eventually learns to recognize the hand so that when a new image of a hand is presented, it can determine within a high probability that the image it is seeing is a hand based upon the historical information its been fed. (Duff 2010; Barras 2010)

All these images are stored in a huge computer farm where the data can be accessed by the computer to generate probabilities and statistics about the human form and how it moves. This “learned” information would then be packaged into the Natal system that would then drive the system’s ability to interpret information from the 3-D camera and apply that to the control systems and characters.

Some implications to consider

Human Computer Interaction

If Microsoft can succeed in this task, how might it revolutionize Human- Computer Interaction [HCI] moving forward? The depiction of Tom Cruise’s manipulation of holographic information in Minority Report could become reality in the not too distant future. Holographic teleconferencing is already a reality thanks to Cisco. (Click here to see a demo if interested.) Is this a one step closer toward eliminating the need for any kind of physical input device in the future? Imagine not needing a physical keyboard to type.

More significantly, Natal isn’t limited to just voice and motion detection. Microsoft is working to expand their work with machine learning to the point that Natal can In addition to body movement and voice, Microsoft’s Lionhead Studios is working on teaching the system to recognize individuals, to actually hear them and interpret emotion and interact with them. (Watch the Lionhead demo with Milo and Claire.)

Target Audiences

Data currently shows that females and young children heavily favor the Wii console. I hypothesize this has much to do with the complex control protocols for the Xbox360 and PS3. According to Nielsen, females make up over 46% of the PC and casual game players, however a look at user demographics from the manufacturers shows that this trend doesn’t currently translate to the serious game consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3). Nintendo’s web site claims that the Nintendo Wii has captured 80% of the entire female gaming market. The Xbox 360 (11%) and Playstation 3 (9%). Likewise, the Nielsen survey shows that the heaviest percentage of Wii’s users is aged 6-11.

This shift in video game control use protocols from intimidating controllers and complex button actions to controls based upon mimicking real life movement is likely to bring a larger mix of females and young children to the Xbox360. This would certainly also have an impact on game design for the Xbox to include more casual games, and possibly a shift toward more sensitive treatment of female game characters in serious games to better appeal to women. This could also have serious implications for Microsoft taking dominant position in the console market.

Unfortunately, most industry data on console demographics and use insights are held closely by the console manufacturers, so I can’t substantiate with hard data my hypothesis regarding the relationship between women and young children and the complexity of the game controllers and control protocols of the Xbox360 and PS3.

Health Assumptions

In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, although Henry Jenkins makes a compelling case for a focus on teaching children media literacy, including video games fostering learning and literacy he largely ignores the too common health objections. Numerous studies have been conducted on the relationship between child obesity and lack of exercise. In an article on Video Games and Your Child’s Health, Earl Hunsinger offers a 1993 quote by Dr. Oded Bar-Or, a director of children’s nutrition at Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals in Hamilton, Canada: “Today’s children are fatter and more sedentary than ever before. Obesity among children has increased quite dramatically in the last 20 years… [they] identified lack of exercise as a risk factor for . . . coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and osteoporosis.” (Hunsinger, 2007) Clearly, few would argue that traditionally video games contribute to a sedentary lifestyle.

Nintendo’s Wii system has been able to kick that stigma given the more interactive nature of its game play design. Project Natal will certainly take interactivity to the next level. Not limited to primarily hand and arm movement as the Wii is, Natal requires the use of the entire body as part of the game control system. According to Todd Holmdahl, VP of Hardware for Microsoft, they observed during game demos that they “had people using every part of their body. Not only were they smiling, but they said ‘hey, I was actually there.’” Dare I suggest that Natal may foster more physical fitness in children?

Conclusion

Clearly, the implications for a system such as Project Natal go well beyond what I’ve touched on in this post, and as Jamie Shotton, Researcher for Microsoft Research states, “this may well be the most successful application of machine learning that’s ever been deployed…[and] we should expect the unexpected.” However, I will stop well short of suggesting that it represents sea change in the next step of evolution.

References

Barras, Colin. “Microsoft’s body-sensing, button-busting controller – tech – 07 January 2010 – New Scientist.” Science news and science jobs from New Scientist – New Scientist. 7 Jan. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. .

Blake, Andrew, Jamie Shotton, and Todd Holmdahl. “Project Natal – The Innovation Journey.” Interview. YouTube: Xbox’s Project Natal Channel. Microsoft, 7 Jan. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2010. .

Duffy, Jill. “Exclusive: Inside Project Natal’s Brain | Popular Science.” Popular Science | New Technology, Science News, The Future Now. 7 Jan. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. .

Hartley, Matt. “Saturday interview: Exclusive, with Robbie Bach, Microsoft.” Financial Post | Canadian Business News, Investing and Commentary. 8 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. .

Hunsinger, Earl. “Video Games and Your Child.” Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Buzzle.com, 26 Feb. 2007. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. .

Jenkins, Henry. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Rep. Cambridge: MIT, 2009. Print.

“Making Movies: How’d They do That? – Optical Engineering Makes Movie Motion Realistic.” The American Institute of Physics — Physics Publications and Resources. Ed. Katherine Milton. 7 Apr. 2007. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. .

McMillan, Gavin. The State of the Video Gamer: PC Game and Video Game Console Usage, Fourth Quarter 2008. Rep. Nielsen Company. Web. 21 Feb. 2010. .

Molyneux, Peter. “Peter Molyneux discusses Project Natal.” Interview. YouTube: Xbox’s Project Natal Channel. Microsoft, 9 June 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.

So as a class mate of mine recently queried: “Is social media making us anti-social?” I decided to write briefly on this question in the context of friendship given a recent class discussion on the topic.

The concept of friendship certainly has evolved (or devolved) since ancient times. In William Deresiewicz’s article for The Chronicle entitled Faux Friendship we see that the ancient concept of friendship implied true intimacy between friends, and was a rare commodity. Once found, love and loyalty to a friend was almost supreme. As an example, he cites the friendship between Archilles and Patroclus. Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior weighs his loyalty to Patroclus beyond his loyalty to Greece itself as demonstrated  when he quits the Trojan war, and chooses to return to battle only after the death of Patroclus, and for the sole purpose of avenging Patroclus’ death.

 With the rise of Christianity, the classical idea of friendship began to weaken (except for a brief resurgence during the renaissance) with the Christian belief intense personal bonds should be discouraged in favor of a “heart… turned to God.” So as Teri questions, is social media furthering the deterioration of the original idea of friendship? Just thinking in terms of Facebook, how has the concept of friendship changed? Some things to consider: the temporal nature of FB friends; willingness to share personal thoughts with our entire FB universe via The Wall; what having 312 FB friends says about our concept of “what a friend” means.

 Leisa Reichelt offers a counterpoint to this perspective with what she coins Ambient Intimacy. Given the nature of this forum, I won’t get into it, but you can read about it on her blog, disambiguity.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been a bit silent over the past 2 weeks. For that, I apologize. I was taking a well deserved holiday break from work and school to visit with my wife’s family in Athens, Greece.

Greece was uncommonly warm this winter (averaging 15-18 degrees Celsius) so it didn’t feel like Christmas from a weather perspective, but it sure was nice to be around so much family!

Anyway, I’ve since returned from my Greek holiday and am fully charged up for 2010. This quarter I’ll be focusing my school studies on Trends in Digital Media, and examing Social Production and Distribution of Digital Media – so count on the majority of my upcoming posts to be focused on these two topics!

Cheers!

David

You can find our final deliverables on our project blog, or read the final paper.  OpenCongress Final Project Paper

(Just a note: the final paper doesn’t include any of the fun interactive stuff, so visit the site instead!)

It’s been a fun and exhausting quarter and I’m ready to take a well deserved two week break! Thanks for the great partnership Chelsey and Matt!