The Emperor Climbs Down From The Golden Throne

Started by jimmy olsen, May 19, 2014, 06:31:00 AM

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jimmy olsen

Damn has hologram technology improved over the years. Way better than that shitty Japanese idol. Also, that song was pretty damn good. Classic MJ.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/18/5729866/michael-jackson-hologram-at-billboard-music-awards
Quote

A hologram of Michael Jackson appeared tonight at the Billboard Music Awards, almost five years after the singer's death. Jackson's hologram was materialized sprawled on a shimmering golden throne amid a host of backing dancers both real and ethereal. Stepping away from the incorporeal backdrop, Jackson's hologram threw out a host of his signature shapes, moonwalking its way through pyrotechnics as it performed the singer's recently released Slave to the Rhythm. The song comes from Jackson's posthumous Xscape album, released this month, which is made up of unreleased material remixed by artists such as Timbaland.

Jackson joins a growing list of musicians — both living and dead — who have had their images projected onto stage for "live" performances. Janelle Monae and M.I.A were able to share a stage in April, even though the artists were 3,000 miles apart, while deceased rappers Ol' Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E made hologramatic appearances at concerts in 2013. The practice of resurrecting dead artists for posthumous performances was popularized by the appearance of Tupac Shakur's hologram at 2012's Coachella festival. The likeness was created by visual effects studio Digital Domain, who reportedly took four months to create the projection of the rapper, at a cost of up to $400,000.

Digital Domain filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The companies that purchased the studio's assets had attempted to halt the performance of Jackson's hologram at tonight's awards. Hologram USA and Musion Das Hologram argued that the show violated their patents, but the show went ahead after a Las Vegas judge agreed that the technology was in the public domain.

The technology to project apparent holograms on stage has existed since the sixteenth century, and was given a name by British chemist John Pepper in Victorian Britain. But while the "Pepper's Ghost" illusion is not a new invention, the advent of lifelike CGI has only recently allowed us to resurrect celebrities and musicians, and to make them sing and dance for us on stage once more.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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1 Karma Chameleon point

Phillip V

When will hologram projections become ubiquitous all around us?

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Phillip V on May 19, 2014, 07:48:50 AM
When will hologram projections become ubiquitous all around us?
In what way? As advertisements? Star Trek style Holodecks?  :huh:
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Sheilbh

Let's bomb Russia!

Habbaku

Was kinda hoping this was a development in the Warhammer 40k universe.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Ed Anger

Was hoping Tim was ripped apart by Gregor Eisenhorn.

Best Fan fiction ever.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Habbaku on May 19, 2014, 08:33:50 PM
Was kinda hoping this was a development in the Warhammer 40k universe.
Given the undead nature of the performance and the fact that it starts with him sitting on a gilded throne I couldn't resist making a WH40k reference.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Eddie Teach

But Jackson was merely the King of Pop, never Emperor.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

It appears this projection technology dates to the 19th century (Pepper's Ghost) and is merely the illusion of a hologram?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

jimmy olsen

Are holograms supposed to be hard? I thought that was just sci-fi bullshit and holograms were supposed to illusions made of light.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458271,00.asp
QuoteGet Ready for the Hologram Revolution

    By Seamus Condron
    May 20, 2014
    2 Comments

Dear Elvis Presley impersonators, your days might be numbered.

I don't typically watch music awards shows, but on Sunday night I tuned into the Billboard Music Awards to catch a performance from Michael Jackson. You know, the music legend and kinda creepy guy who died five years ago? Well, he's back...in hologram form! If that sound scary enough, the scarier news was how eerily flawless the whole thing was, at least from a technology standpoint.

Geeks everywhere have had a quiet fascination with holograms and their evolution through pop culture and in real life. Our first holographic experience was probably when we all saw Princess Leia plea for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then it made a giant leap on Star Trek: The Next Generation with the Holodeck, a fully immersive environment that felt as real as true life, where you could visit and interact with any time in history. But up until last night's Michael Jackson resurrection, real-life iterations have been pretty disappointing. There was that time CNN tried to deliver election news via hologram (which wasn't really a hologram), as well as another musical resurrection, namely Tupac Shakur at the Coachella festival, which also was CGI, and not a true hologram. Which begs the question, where are the damn holograms?

Last night's hologram, or whatever technology was powering it, was something entirely different than anything I'd seen. Not only did we see Michael Jackson moonwalk, we saw a precisely choreographed, four-minute act that was virtually no different than if Jackson was there in the flesh. I say virtually because it was not perfect; there was that face that reminded you of the first time you saw The Polar Express, albeit vastly improved, and the hologram, while agile, didn't seem to have the elasticity that Jackson possessed when he moved and danced.

All that said, how will something like this look in a year, or in five? It reportedly took six months to put the Jackson performance together, for four minutes of payoff. But how long will it be before we can push that to 60 minutes, or two or more hours? While watching the performance last night, I could imagine executives from Disney and show promoters from Las Vegas salivating at the prospect of fully immersive holographic theme park rides, or the triumphant return of Elvis Presley for three shows a night.

You're probably thinking that the prospect of entertainers returning from the dead is a morbid one. However, talk to me in five years and tell me how you feel. You still may not like it, but it will be so present that it will be as normal as walking down the street and following directions by a robot that lives in your phone. You probably wouldn't have expected that either.

And if you still can't stomach the idea of the hologram of a dead singer performing in front of you, pick your own passion/poison, because pretty soon the holograms of famous writers, scientists, and ancient philosophers will be at your disposal. Think about sharing a glass of stout with a fully aware holographic version of your favorite writer, Oscar Wilde, and tell me if you're still creeped out.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point